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A Rebuke, but No Penalty, for an Illinois Senator

WASHINGTON — The Senate Ethics Committee issued a sternly worded rebuke on Friday to Senator Roland W. Burris, Democrat of Illinois, saying he had made misleading and inaccurate statements about the circumstances surrounding his appointment by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich. But it made no recommendation for further punishment.

Concluding an investigation into whether Mr. Burris lied about contacts with associates of the governor, who was later impeached and forced from office, the panel issued Mr. Burris a letter of admonishment and said he had been less than candid in his statements and had had an inappropriate telephone call with the governor’s brother, Robert.

“While the committee did not find that the evidence before it supported any actionable violations of law, senators must meet a much higher standard of conduct,” said the letter from the panel, which also found that Mr. Burris’s actions and statements “reflected unfavorably on the Senate.”

In his own statement, Mr. Burris, 72, a former Illinois attorney general who has announced he will not seek election to the seat next year, said that he was gratified the investigation was over and that he looked forward to finishing his term.

”I am pleased that after numerous investigations, this matter has finally come to a close,” Mr. Burris said. “I thank the members of the Senate Ethics Committee for their fair and thorough review of this matter, and now look forward to continuing the important work ahead on behalf of the people of Illinois.”

Issued before the release of the Ethics Committee findings, the statement from the senator’s office carried a headline stating that Mr. Burris had been “cleared of legal wrongdoing” by the panel. But the tone of the panel’s admonishment demonstrated that his colleagues were disturbed by conduct related to his appointment in January to the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama before he assumed the presidency.

“The committee found that you should have known that you were providing incorrect, inconsistent, misleading or incomplete information to the public, the Senate and those conducting legitimate inquiries into your appointment to the Senate,” the letter said.

Saying that Mr. Blagojevich was essentially auctioning the Senate seat that was his to fill, federal prosecutors last December disclosed secretly recorded phone calls that they said showed the governor plotting how to get the most reward for the seat. The revelations led Senate Democratic leaders to declare immediately that they would not seat anyone appointed by Mr. Blagojevich.

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An ethics panel issued a letter of admonishment to Roland W. Burris, a Democrat, who was appointed to President Obama's seat.Credit
Scott Olson/Getty Images

But the governor went ahead and in late December appointed Mr. Burris, defying the leadership. After an embarrassing standoff that at one point had Mr. Burris standing outside the Capitol in the rain, Democrats relented and said he could be seated, provided he could demonstrate to a state legislative committee considering impeaching Mr. Blagojevich that no bargains had been struck to win the seat.

Mr. Burris testified before the impeachment panel on Jan. 8 and did not disclose that he had spoken by phone with Mr. Blagojevich’s brother in November and suggested he might raise money for the governor and was interested in the Senate appointment. He disclosed that call after he had been seated in the Senate, sparking the ethics investigation and a separate perjury inquiry in Illinois that found no grounds for a criminal charge.

But the ethics panel noted that Mr. Burris’s initial testimony omitting the talk with the governor’s brother was “one of the factors the Senate leadership said they would consider in your seating, and its truthfulness was important and relevant.”

“Your shifting explanations about your sworn statements appear less than candid,” the ethics letter to Mr. Burris said in a section that was boldfaced and underlined for emphasis.

The ethics letter also noted that in the conversation with the governor’s brother about fund-raising, Mr. Burris repeatedly raised his interest in the Senate seat.

“You also implied that people you might raise money from would be unhappy if you did not receive the appointment,” the letter said. “The committee finds that this conversation was inappropriate in its contents and implications.”

Though the ethics panel recommended no punishment, it is possible the decision was influenced by the fact that Mr. Burris had already announced he would be leaving the Senate next year.

In a statement, Richard J. Durbin, the senior senator from Illinois and the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, noted that Senate leaders made clear to Mr. Burris in January that he needed to give a full account of the circumstances surrounding the appointment.

“Since then, the accuracy and completeness of his testimony and affidavits have been called into question,” Mr. Durbin said.

The ethics committee, he said, found that Mr. Burris’s actions “have brought discredit on him and the Senate.”

A version of this article appears in print on November 21, 2009, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: A Rebuke, but No Penalty, for an Illinois Senator. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe